Paul Connaughton Snr (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I seek the Adjournment of the Dáil under Standing Order 32 to raise an urgent matter of national importance concerning the failure of the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and his Department to pay out the correct single farm payment and area based payment to thousands of farmers in the past month; to establish the reason farmers were not contacted earlier in the year about alleged mapping errors given that the applications were in the Department as long ago as last April; to establish why some farmers received letters outlining problems that did not exist; to establish why it has taken the private company, which is re-digitising the maps in question, so long to complete the exercise; and if the Minister is aware of the vast number of farmers who have bank commitments to meet and who are now in grave financial circumstances as a result of this bureaucratic mess. It is time the Minister did something about this.

See this speech in context